By Ted Waddell
JEFFERSONVILLE — October 22, 2004 – In Wednesday’s Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association (OCIAA) girls’ soccer match, the Lady Iron Dukes of Marlboro defeated the home team Sullivan West Lady Bulldogs 2-1 in a hard-fought game on both sides of the field.
With the win, Marlboro improved to 5-10 overall and 4-5 in OCIAA Division IV play. SW fell to 5-8 and 3-5 in Division IV.
As the squads duked it out, the normally slow starting Lady Iron Dukes scored first. At 20:31 in the opening frame, Morgan Rusk and Emilie Hicks teamed up to assist Rosie Edreira in putting a shot past SW goalkeeper Karry Johnston.
At 19:02, the Lady Bulldogs tied it up 1-1 on a shot by Kristen Niemann off an assist from Kate Fanning.
The game’s final score was at 10:12 on a penalty kick by Marlboro’s Amanda Toombs after a Lady Bulldog player booter made a handball mistake in the box, an error that set up what proved to be the game winning goal.
“Right now, we’re trying to qualify for the sectional playoffs,” said Omar Elizondo, coach of the Lady Iron Dukes. “We have to win two out of our next three to qualify… we have some pretty good competition down the stretch.”
Elizondo said that that early on in the season, his players took their lumps, but as the season winds down are learning to overcome “the mental mistakes a young team traditionally makes.”
SW Coach Mike Mahoney said the match unfolded pretty much as he expected.
“Defensive mistakes cost us two goals,” he said.
Mahoney said his booters had a couple of scoring opportunities in the first half, but “the girls just drifted wide of the goal, [and] tried to get a shot off that took away the angle and played to the advantage of their goalie.”
“We had penetration in the second half, but their keeper made some good saves,” he said of Marlboro’s Caitlyn Heinzinger, who had 14 saves.
Mahoney questioned a couple of calls, particularly one in which he felt the official “choose not to give the girl a card” after, in Mahoney’s opinion, the opposing player decked a SW booter instead of playing the ball in midfield.
Mahoney said that while that play “didn’t affect the [outcome] of the game,” in his view “it reinforces to the players that they cane make hard hits and not get any kind of repercussions.”
By losing to Marlboro, SW’s future now depends on how the Lady Iron Dukes fare in their final three games of the season.
“We lost control of our own destiny by losing this match,” said Mahoney. “We’ve got to win against Liberty on Friday.”
“Our inability to finish is frustrating,” he added.
Note: That SW versus Liberty match Mahoney spoke of will be played this afternoon at 4:15 p.m. at Liberty.